feudal solutions to illegal immigration

If there was a Nobel Prize for dumb ideas, this would win.

 Apparently, the town of Yuma, AZ wants to build a moat to keep illegal immigrants from coming in.  I thought the proposed “wall” was a dumb idea, but a moat makes a wall seem brilliant.

It’s hard to know where to start with this.  I mean, just the concept itself seems kind of silly, just on the surface.  But, as you really begin to think about it and break down their logic, it gets even sillier.  The Yuma county sheriff was quoted as saying:

The moats that I’ve seen circled the castle and allowed you to protect yourself, and that’s kind of what we’re looking at here

Of course, the problem is that moats were put around castles to protect them from armies.  Intruders can get through it much easier.  That’s part of the problem with a wall . . . it sounds like a good idea, but in reality, it’s just not going to be all that effective.

But, the worst part of the moat is the fact that we already have a water barrier on the US/Mexico border–The Rio Grande.  And, from all accounts, it is not that effective in preventing illegals from crossing.  This is because ultimately, barriers and legislation are not effective in preventing this from happening.

Illegal immigration is simple supply and demand economics.  People in Mexico need jobs to survive.  We have jobs that will help them survive.  Thus, they will come here and work the jobs needed to survive.  The problem is that the demand is far too high for things like walls and moats and tougher laws to effectively deter.  These people will take great risks, because their need is great.

In some ways, it’s the same as prohibition.  Because the demand for alcohol was so high, the government found that it was impossible to effectively enforce the laws.  So, in that case, they repealed it.

The only real solution to illegal immigration is the affect the supply and demand dynamic.  The most effective solution would be to improve the economic situation in Mexico, causing people to not need to cross the border.  Or, to somehow affect the supply of jobs on this side.  I’m not an economist, so I don’t have the answers to how to do that, but given the cost of living in Mexico, I can’t imagine that it would be too difficult to stimulate their economy to the point that people could find the means of survival there.

But, simply creating a barrier in the supply chain is not going to be effective.  Even if it could keep the black knight from storming the castle.